I'll get right on that.

[snarp]

Link Removal Request

From: Keith Terrell (Keith.Terrell@melbourneit.com.au)

To: sarahpin.com@respectmyprivacy.com

Hello,

We recently reviewed all the links pointing to the MelbourneIT website, and found that you currently have link/s to us on your website, sarahpin.com.

While we appreciate your support, our online marketing team has requested that the links listed below be removed if possible, as they no longer

comply with the guidelines set out by the various search engines.

The page/s of your website that we found links on are:

http://www.sarahpin.com/2008/07/19/recent-researches-why-yahoo-private-domain-registration-is-not-private/

We appreciate your time in reviewing this. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any problems locating the links.

Kind regards,
Keith

The link in question is on one of several extremely critical posts I've made about Yahoo and MelbourneIT's unethical business practices. MelbourneIT provides Yahoo's horrific domain registration services.

Comments

[branchandroot]

It would serve them right if you sent back a chipper reply about how you've updated the link metadata or whatever they think they can BS you about to comply with current search engine guidelines and thanking them so much for bringing that to your attention. After all, you want to be sure that all search engines properly index those links and references!

What complete toads.

[boxofdelights]

Beware, young lady. Be very very ware. Your links no longer comply with The Guidelines. You are in non-compliance with the various search engines. Take this warning seriously.

[snarp]

What's sad/funny about it is that they're currently having a huge PR meltdown, and I'm guessing that this is part of how they're responding to it. Good work, guys. Good work.

[snarp]

When I was eleven or twelve, I was sent me a very severe-sounding takedown demand from "The Netscape Law Association," which was plainly very official, and in charge of laws, and, you know. Stuff. I was totally going to go to baby-jail if I didn't take down my website making fun of a specific band.

The Netscape Law Association had pretty decent formatting, good grammar, and phrased things seriously enough that it actually took my Mom's bullshit detector a couple seconds to kick in when I showed it to her. I explained to her what Netscape was; I hope that someone someday did the same for whatever adult spent so much time trying to make a grade-schooler stop talking shit about their favorite band.

[vass]

Oh my alma mater, stay classy.

I see their marketing department knows about Wikipedia too. The terms "synergies" and "strategic leadership" in a description of what the company was set up to do are a dead giveaway.

[azurelunatic]

The alternate explanation is no less hilarious: spammers, and people who have employed spam campaigns in the past, are starting to get dinged by Google. So they send these form letters to places that they or their agents have spammed in the past, and any other thing that Google thinks looks like spam intended to promote them.

The Dreamwidth anti-spam team gets a few very sincere letters like this every now and then. Sometimes it's about actual spam which they are now regretting. Sometimes it is about real users having linked to them. If it's not actual spam, they are told to piss up a rope. If it is actual spam, it does tend to disappear, but (depending on the circumstances) they may still be told to piss up a rope.

[azurelunatic]

Having worked at another registrar for a while, I have very definite opinions about Melbourne IT.

The magnificent bastard troll who put the "GULLIBLE" signs on the ceilings of the mail room and his fellow Aussie floormate were very amused that someone so far away from Australia would have such vehement opinions (so very congruent with theirs) about them.